Month: October 2021

An 18-member group of nations, including the United States and United Kingdom, has expressed “deep concern” over what it calls the Russian government’s “intensifying harassment of independent journalists and media outlets” in the country.

In a statement issued on October 28 under the name of the Media Freedom Coalition, was also signed by Ukraine and North Macedonia, along with Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

The statement said that “media freedom is vital to the effective functioning of free and open societies and is essential to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Russian authorities have been accused of increasingly cracking down on independent media outlets, civil society groups, rights activists, and others, using legislations on “undesirable” individuals or groups, as well as the so-called “foreign agents” law.

The 18-nation statement said Russian authorities continue in 2021 to “systematically detain journalists and subject them to harsh treatment while they reported on protests in support of imprisoned opposition figure Aleksei Navalny.”

READ ALSO: Navalny Dedicates His Sakharov Prize to World’s Corruption Fighters

It also said the office of student magazine Doxa was searched in April in relation to “spurious charges, and four editors were then subjected to severe restrictions on their freedom.”

Other cases cited by the group included a June 29 raid by Russian authorities on the apartments of staff members of investigative news website The Project (Proekt), a move made on the same day the site published an investigation into alleged corrupt practices by Russia’s interior minister.

The statement added that Russian occupation authorities in Crimea have held Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) freelance correspondent Vladyslav Yesypenko since March “and have reportedly tortured him in detention.”

“On July 15, Yesypenko was indicted on specious charges and faces up to 18 years’ imprisonment,” it said.

Yesypenko, a dual Russian-Ukrainian citizen who contributes to Crimea.Realities, was detained on suspicion of collecting information for Ukrainian intelligence. He had worked in Crimea for five years reporting on the social and environmental situation on the peninsula before being detained.

A court in Simferopol on July 15 formally charged him with possession and transport of explosives. He pleaded not guilty and faces up to 18 years in prison if convicted.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly at the time described the case as the latest example of the Kremlin’s campaign to target independent media outlets and called it “a mockery of justice.”

The statement by the 18-nation group also said that on October 8, Russian authorities applied the “media foreign agent” label to the international investigative journalism project Bellingcat, known for its investigation of the poisoning of Navalny.

“In an unambiguous effort to suppress Russians’ access to independent reporting, the Russian government introduced onerous labeling requirements for so-called ‘media foreign agents’ last year.

“Since then, it has charged RFE/RL with more than 600 violations, resulting in fines totaling more than $4.4 million,” the statement said.

“It increasingly appears the Russian government intends to force RFE/RL to end its decades-long presence in Russia, just as it has already forced the closure of several other independent media outlets in recent years.”

In addition, it said, authorities have applied the media foreign agent label to independent Russian outlets operating within or near Russia’s borders. “While concerns related to freedom of expression and the safety of journalists in Russia have intensified, they are not new. We stand in solidarity with independent Russian journalists who assume personal risk in carrying out their professional activities, and we honor the memory of those reporters whose intrepid work has cost them their lives.”

The statement urged Russia to comply with its international human rights commitments and obligations and “to respect and ensure media freedom and safety of journalists.”
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The Belarusian interior ministry on Friday classified three of the country’s most popular opposition social media channels as extremist organizations, meaning that people can face up to seven years in prison for subscribing to them.

Social media channels such as Telegram messenger were widely used during mass street protests against President Alexander Lukashenko last year both to coordinate demonstrations and share footage of a violent police crackdown.

The NEXTA news outlet, run by a Belarusian exile in Poland, has three channels on Telegram, including NEXTA Live, which has nearly 1 million subscribers in a country of 9.5 million.

“The Ministry of Internal Affairs has made a decision to recognize a group of citizens carrying out extremist activities through the Telegram channels NEXTA, NEXTA-Live and LUXTA, an extremist organization and prohibiting its activities,” the ministry said in a statement.

Previously, anyone who reposted material from NEXTA risked a fine or detention for 30 days. But the new classification means subscribers could be prosecuted for participating in an extremist organization and be jailed for up to seven years.

“1.4 million more extremists appeared in Belarus today,” NEXTA wrote in a tweet. “Ministry of Internal Affairs recognized telegram channels NEXTA, NEXTA Live and LUXTA as ‘extremist formations’. This means that criminal cases can be opened against creators, administrators and subscribers in #Belarus.”

Protests erupted last year after a presidential election that Lukashenko’s opponents say was blatantly rigged to keep the veteran leader in power.

Tens of thousands of people were detained and human rights activists say more than 800 people are now in jail as political prisoners since the protests.

The authorities have recently taken reprisals against citizens who voice dissent online. Hundreds of people were detained and face prison terms for making disrespectful comments about a KGB officer who died in a shootout in Minsk last month.
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Efforts by Chinese diplomats to stop cultural events deemed critical of the government in Beijing have met with mixed results in Europe, succeeding in Germany but being rebuffed by a city government in Italy.

The incident in Germany concerned a new book, Xi Jinping — The Most Powerful Man in the World, by two veteran German journalists, Stern magazine’s China correspondent Adrian Geiges, and Die Welt newspaper publisher Stefan Aust.

Confucius Institutes at two German universities had planned online events on Oct. 27 to coordinate with the book’s launch. But the book’s publisher, Piper Verlag of Munich, said the events were canceled at short notice “due to Chinese pressure.”

The company accused Feng Haiyang, the Chinese consul general in Düsseldorf, of intervening personally to quash the event at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Duisburg and Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

At Leibniz University in Hannover, the Tongji University in Shanghai — which jointly operates the Confucius Institute there — forced the cancellation of an event, according to the company. Neither the publisher nor the institute offered details on what triggered the cancellation.

The institutes, run by China’s education ministry, are seen by Beijing as a way to promote its culture. Many Western countries have become wary of the influence the institutes exert on campuses by subsidizing classes, travel and research.

Dozens of Confucius Institutes have been closed or are closing in Europe and Australia. At least 29 shuttered in the U.S. after the State Department in August 2020 designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center as a “foreign mission” of the Chinese government.

In a statement, Piper Verlag quoted a Confucius Institute employee as saying that “One can no longer talk about Xi Jinping as a normal person, he should now be untouchable and unspeakable.”

Felicitas von Lovenberg, head of Piper Verlag, called the cancellation of the events “a worrying and disturbing signal.”

Aust of Die Welt said the incident confirmed the book’s basic thesis: “For the first time, a dictatorship is in the process of overtaking the West economically, and is now also trying to impose its values, which are against our freedom, internationally.”

The book presented China in a very differentiated way as it also talked about China’s success in overcoming poverty, co-author Geiges said. “Apparently, such balanced reports are no longer enough for Xi Jinping. Stories are no longer enough — he now wants a cult around his person internationally, just as he does in China itself.”

A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Berlin said events at Confucius Institutes were planned to bring about better understanding between the two peoples, and they “should build on the basis of comprehensive communications between the partners.”

China supports the development of the institutes as “a platform to understand China comprehensively and objectively,” the embassy spokesperson added. “But we strongly object to any politicization of academic and cultural exchange.”

Both Confucius Institutes said in their respective statements that there were different views between the German and Chinese partners, making it impossible to carry on. The Institute for East Asian Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen had expressed interest in hosting the event, according to the university’s Confucius Institute.

German human rights activist David Missal told VOA Cantonese there has always been pressure from the Chinese side when it comes to critical events, but the tactics were rarely exposed. He took it as a positive development that these incidents are coming to light.

“I think this is the only way to fight this kind of influence in a democracy — you have to make these things public, make them transparent, and then there will be political responses to these incidents,” Missal said.

Reinhard Bütikofer, a German member of the European Parliament who is critical of China, said the next German federal government must draw clear lines about its China policy. “Chinese censorship at German universities? Does not work at all. These so-called ‘Confucius’ institutes, which are in fact CCP aides, have no future,” he tweeted.

Earlier this month, the Chinese Embassy in Rome attempted to stop a critical art show, but failed.

A museum in Brescia, an Italian city about 100 kilometers east of Milan, will continue with its plans to open a solo exhibition of the work of Australia-based Chinese exiled activist Badiucao. Scheduled to run from Nov. 13-Feb. 13, the exhibition is entitled “China is [not] near.” It will feature the artist’s work criticizing issues such as China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its crackdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

The Chinese Embassy in Rome sent the Brescia city council a message on Oct. 21, contending that Badiucao’s works twisted facts, spread false information, would mislead the Italian people’s understanding of China while seriously damaging Chinese people’s feelings, and jeopardize friendly relations between China and Italy, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.

Brescia Mayor Emilio Del Bono told the Il Foglio newspaper the show will not be canceled, adding, “I think it is important to show that you can stay friends while criticizing some things.”

Badiucao told VOA Mandarin via phone on live TV that he was not surprised by the embassy’s position. “I am very excited that the city government and the museum stood strongly with me. I can say very confidently that my exhibition will not be canceled. I will not amend my exhibits or commit any self-censorship.”

VOA Cantonese asked the Chinese Embassy in Rome for comments but received no response.

This story originated in VOA’s Cantonese Service.
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It is only a matter of time before China’s plan to replace the United States as the world’s preeminent military becomes reality, a top U.S. general warned, calling on the Washington and its allies to speed efforts to counter Beijing’s bid for dominance.

General John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Washington’s second-most-senior military officer, called the rapid rise of the Chinese military “stunning.”

“The pace they’re moving and the trajectory that they’re on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don’t do something to change it,” he told the Defense Writers Group on Thursday, responding to a question from VOA.

“We have to do something,” he added.

The warning from Hyten, who is set to retire next month, comes a day after the top U.S. military officer publicly confirmed that China tested a hypersonic weapon system in July, sending a glider around the world at five times the speed of sound.

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday the Chinese test was “very concerning.”

“I don’t know if it’s quite a Sputnik moment, but I think it’s very close to that,” Milley added, referring to Russia’s launch of the world’s first artificial satellite in the 1950s. The feat sparked the space race that dominated the next several decades.

Like Milley, Hyten refused to share details of the Chinese hypersonic test, saying the information remained classified.

But he did acknowledge that simply by conducting such a test, China was sending a message.

“All the hypersonic weapons they’re building, all of the nuclear weapons they’re building, are not meant for their own population,” Hyten said of China. “It is meant for the United States of America, and we have to assume that, and we have to plan for that.”

Hyten expressed confidence that for now, America’s own hypersonic program is more advanced, though he raised concerns that even that could be changing.

“In the last five years, maybe longer, the United States has done nine hypersonic tests,” Hyten told reporters. “The Chinese have done hundreds.”

“Single digits versus hundreds is not a good place,” he said.

Hyten also repeated concerns he first voiced as commander of U.S. Strategic Command, that the U.S. capability to defend against hypersonic weapons, from China and Russia, needs work.

“The most important thing about defending yourself against hypersonics is not the weapon. It is not building your own hypersonics. It’s building a sensor that can see hypersonics,” he said. “Right now, we don’t have the sensors.”

Hyten said one way to boost visibility would be for the U.S. to work with allies to create an integrated network of ground-based and space-based systems to track the high-speed weapons.

But building such a capability will take time, and Hyten warned its development could get bogged down by the Pentagon’s growing bureaucracy, which he said continues to slow critical programs, despite recent efforts to boost efficiency.

Hyten said another way to counter hypersonic weapons would be to turn to lasers, which travel at the speed of light.

“We’ve finally reached the point in technology in lasers that it has reached the maturity that it can actually be lethal on incoming missile threats,” Hyten said. “We need to invest in that.”

Russia

Despite concerns about China’s rapidly progressing military prowess, Hyten said that for the moment, Russia remains the biggest existential threat to the U.S.

“Russia is still the most imminent threat, simply because they have 1,500 deployed nuclear weapons, plus or minus, and China’s got roughly 20% of that,” the general said in response to a question from VOA. “So, you have to worry about Russia in the near term.”

“They already have operational hypersonic capabilities with nuclear weapons on it,” Hyten said of Russia. “And they continue to experiment with hypersonics, but not nearly at the pace of China, not anywhere close to the pace of China.” 
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On a sunny afternoon near the hamlet of Bidnija in Malta, a small crowd gathered by the side of a rural road to remember one of the country’s best-known journalists. 

It has been four years this October since Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a bombing just a short distance from her home. 

But despite international attention to the journalist’s death and her work uncovering corruption, little has changed in terms of Malta’s press freedom environment, analysts and local journalists say. 

Barriers to access, the use of lawsuits as a form of harassment and an over-reliance on state funding are all cited as ongoing issues. Rights groups have also said that Malta’s two main parties dominate media ownership — and by extension, press coverage itself. 

Caruana Galizia was widely known in Malta, where her Running Commentary blog had an online readership to rival Malta’s established newspapers. She was known as a journalist unafraid to upset the status quo in her reporting on alleged corruption. 

“Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination was an incredible shock to the nation,” Caroline Muscat, founder of The Shift news website, told VOA. “It was almost spectacular, in the sense that it was so clearly a message that was being sent to anybody who dared to question corruption.” 

It took a while for Malta’s journalists to come to terms with the killing, said Herman Grech, editor-in-chief of the Times of Malta. 

“It was quite possibly the biggest blow we’ve ever had,” Grech told VOA. “Daphne was not somebody random. Everybody knew Daphne Caruana Galizia. Everybody knew her writing, and everybody knew what she stood for. She was, I would say, loved and resented in equal measure.” 

A court in February sentenced one person to 15 years in prison for his role in the killing. And in August 2021, Yorgen Fenech, one of Malta’s wealthiest businessmen, was indicted on murder charges. Fenech is pleading not guilty.

An official public inquiry into her death in July found that Maltese authorities “created an atmosphere of impunity, generated by the highest echelons.” 

The inquiry made recommendations, including setting up a police unit that focuses on journalists at serious risk and amending the Constitution to recognize journalism as a pillar of democracy that the state has a responsibility to safeguard. 

Ensuring those recommendations are implemented has become a focus for media rights groups. 

“What we want to see is proper press freedom reform that really leads to an improvement in the situation here for journalists,” said Tom Gibson, the European Union representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists. 

Gibson, along with members of Article 19, Reporters Without Borders and other press freedom groups, met with local journalists and officials including Prime Minister Robert Abela and Police Commissioner Angelo Gafa while in Malta to mark the anniversary of Caruana Galizia’s death. 

Abela committed to working with press freedom organizations on legislation regarding the use of lawsuits against journalists, Gibson told VOA. He said the prime minister also pledged that media affiliated with his Labour Party would not run campaigns against journalists during upcoming elections. 

“I think Prime Minister Abela wants to show to us that he is going to put in place reforms,” Gibson said. “Now what we would want to show to him is that we will track these reforms and come back to him, if they don’t work.” 

Malta’s Washington embassy spokesperson told VOA the government is committed to addressing the recommendations in the public inquiry. 

“The government is determined that the necessary legal and institutional reforms are carried out and that journalists are better protected,” the representative told VOA. “Media freedom is fundamental for our society.” 

Journalists Grech and Muscat said some reforms have been implemented, but largely the situation has not improved. To Grech, the heart of the problem is that the government does not acknowledge the importance of the media. 

“The government just simply does not understand the role of the media for democracy,” Grech said. “The most important thing is that the government has to acknowledge that the media is the fourth pillar of democracy.” 

Muscat said another problem is the reliance even independent news outlets have on government advertising and state funding. The issue was raised in the public inquiry report, which said that such reliance risks exposing outlets to pressure. 

Despite the challenging environment, journalists have not been deterred. 

Three weeks after Caruana Galizia’s death, Muscat founded The Shift, an online investigative news site. 

“Immediately, I felt that we needed to send a message back to the perpetrators, that you can’t do this to one of us, and even if you do, then you will not silence the story,” Muscat said. “And that’s what we’ve been doing for the last four years.” 

Muscat said The Shift continues to face barriers to access, including to government events that other news outlets can attend. 

But despite that, “we are absolutely determined to make sure that there is a positive outcome following [Daphne’s] assassination,” Muscat said. “At least she would not have died in vain.”
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The Vatican on Thursday canceled the planned live broadcast of U.S. President Joe Biden meeting Pope Francis, the latest restriction to media coverage of the Holy See that sparked complaints from White House- and Vatican-accredited journalists.

The live broadcast of Biden’s Friday visit was trimmed to cover just the arrival of the president’s motorcade in the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the revised plan reflected the “normal procedure” established during the coronavirus pandemic for all visiting heads of state or government.

That protocol also has meant an 18-month ban on any independent media being in the room for the beginning and end of the audience, as would normally be the case for a visiting head of state.

Canceled was the live coverage of Biden actually greeting Francis in the palace Throne Room, as well as the live footage of the two men sitting down to begin their private talks in Francis’ library, at which time the cameras would have stopped running.

Edited footage to come

The Vatican said it would provide edited footage of the encounter after the fact to accredited media. Bruni didn’t say why the Vatican had originally announced fuller live coverage only to dial it back on the eve of the visit.

Biden, the second Catholic U.S. president, has met Francis three previous times, but this will be his first as president.

The audience was being closely monitored since U.S. bishops are scheduled to meet in a few weeks for their annual fall convention, with one of the agenda items inspired by conservatives who contend that Biden’s support for abortion rights should disqualify him from receiving Communion. Though any document that emerges from the bishops’ conference is not expected to mention Biden by name, it’s possible there could be a clear message of rebuke.

Francis has strongly upheld the church’s opposition to abortion, calling it murder. But he has said bishops should be pastors, not politicians. As a result, the Biden-Francis body language could have given a clue about their mindsets going into the meeting.

The Vatican has provided live television coverage for the visits of major heads of state for years, including President Donald Trump, and had scheduled such coverage Friday for Biden and for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who is also in Rome for a Group of 20 meeting.

Asked to comment on Vatican access during a gaggle with reporters on Air Force One, the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said the administration was “actively engaged” in the issue and would see what Friday brings. 

“The United States will always advocate for access for the free press, and especially for our good friends in the American press who travel with us on these long flights over, to be able to capture and chronicle the president’s engagements,” he said.

Sense of the visit

It is during those moments in the pope’s library that reporters can view the gifts that are exchanged, watch as the formal photograph is taken and overhear remarks as the leaders arrive and depart to get a sense of how the visit is going. Only the pope’s official photographer and Vatican video journalists are now allowed in. 

The Vatican correspondents association has protested the cancellation of such pool access and several media outlets, including The Associated Press, formally complained about Thursday’s dropping of the live Biden-pope broadcast and asked for an explanation. 

The head of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Steven Portnoy of CBS News Radio, expressed disappointment at the lack of live coverage as well as the absence of independent media access. Biden is traveling with his own pool of reporters who would normally be allowed into the pope’s library for the beginning and end of the audience alongside reporters accredited to the Vatican. 

In a series of tweets, Portnoy noted that the White House traveling pool was fully vaccinated and that such a substantial meeting between a Catholic president and the head of the 1.3 billion-member Catholic Church “demands independent coverage.”
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U.S. President Joe Biden is used to scrutiny over how he reconciles his strong Roman Catholic faith — particularly around issues of gender, sexuality and reproduction — with his duty to lead an explicitly secular government. 

On Friday, he will face those questions anew in a meeting at the Vatican with Pope Francis, the Catholic leader who once guided the Biden family through personal grief and who perches permanently behind the president’s shoulder in a framed photo that overlooks the Oval Office. 

The two have met three times and exchanged letters, administration officials said, and Biden met with both of Francis’ predecessors. During a visit to the United States in 2015, Biden has said, the pope took time to talk with the future president and his family not long after the death of Biden’s son Beau. 

This papal audience will not be filmed live. On Thursday, the Vatican canceled a planned live broadcast of the meeting, which Biden will attend before heading to the meeting of G-20 nations in Rome and, after that, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. 

This is more than just a visit between two powerful men with millions of fans and at least as many critics. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this meeting, while primarily personal, will also cover important policy issues. The White House said the two, accompanied by first lady Jill Biden, will “discuss working together on efforts grounded in respect for fundamental human dignity, including ending the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate crisis and caring for the poor.” 

“First, there’ll be the obvious personal dimension,” Sullivan said. “… And they will have a chance just to reflect, each of them, on their view of what’s happening in the world. On policy issues, of course, in the international realm, they’ll be talking about climate and migration and income inequality and other issues that are very top of mind for both of them.” 

The abortion question 

Sullivan did not say whether the two men would discuss abortion, but on this issue, they are clearly divided. The Catholic Church unambiguously opposes abortion. Biden, who says he doesn’t personally agree with the procedure, has as president resisted efforts by states and courts to limit access to abortion. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the two are likely to have “a warm and constructive dialogue” that will focus instead on their points of agreement.

On abortion, she said, Biden’s views are clear. 

“You are familiar with where the president stands,” she said. “He’s somebody who stands up for and believes that a woman’s right to choose is important.” 

This issue is a wedge between Biden and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which plans to meet in coming weeks to debate whether politicians who support abortion should be barred from taking Holy Communion. 

Massimo Faggioli, a Villanova University theology professor and author of Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States, said this meeting could also affect the conflict between Biden and those conservative American clerics. Biden is only the second Catholic president, Faggioli noted, but circumstances are different now. 

“John Kennedy was not an embattled Catholic at war with his bishops, as is the case for Joe Biden,” he told VOA. “And there are high stakes in this meeting and in the (climate) summit in Glasgow a few days later, because both the pope and Joe Biden have very high, on their list of priorities, climate change.” 

Separating church and state 

And, Faggioli said, it’s not just the president who wants to draw a line between the Church and politics. 

“The Vatican and Pope Francis are actively trying to protect Joe Biden’s access to the sacraments — not protecting Joe Biden’s policies, especially on abortion, but they’re protecting Joe Biden’s access to the sacrament because they are afraid that if the sacraments are used to make a political statement, the U.S. Catholic Church will lose its catholicity, which means essentially, not being a sectarian church,” he said. 

“It will be the elephant in the room, probably,” he said. “But they agree on this idea that Catholicism is a big tent that should not be defined by political affiliations, and even less, partisan loyalties.” 

The White House stresses that this meeting is primarily personal.

“I think the president’s faith is, as you all know, is quite personal to him,” Psaki said. “His faith has been a source of strength through various tragedies that he has lived through in his life. Many of you who have served on pool duty know that he attends church every weekend, and certainly I expect he will continue to do that. So, the fact that this is his — will be his fourth meeting — he has a very personal relationship with Pope Francis.”

And, as the White House has also stressed, the president is willing to meet with other spiritual titans. Earlier this week, Biden hosted Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of 200 million Eastern Orthodox Christians. 

“Our president here is a man of faith and man of vision, and we know that he will offer to this wonderful country and to the world the best leadership and direction within his considerable power,” Bartholomew said, after a 45-minute meeting with Biden in the Oval Office. 

More importantly, the patriarch noted, the two men used their massive platforms to push for something that other major faith leaders are also embracing: widespread vaccination. 

This story contains information from The Associated Press. 

 
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A new British research ship, named for British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, has arrived in London to call attention to climate change ahead of next week’s Glasgow climate summit.

The 129-meter RSS Sir David Attenborough has completed sea trials and is ready for service. It sailed up the Thames River on Wednesday to be part of a three-day public celebration hosted by the British Antarctic Survey to raise awareness of the importance and relevance of polar science and why it matters to everyday life.

In a launch event on the ship Thursday, Attenborough, known for his documentaries on nature and the planet, reminded people of the dangers caused by climate change and called for action from delegates attending the summit next week in Glasgow.

Commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and operated by the British Antarctic Survey, the new research platform will transform how U.K. teams conduct ship-borne science in polar regions.

The vessel enjoys a bit of infamy as well. As it was being built in 2016, NERC decided to open the naming of the ship to the public through an internet vote. The winning name was Boaty McBoatface.

The vote was overruled in favor of naming it for Attenborough, but an unmanned research submarine carried on the ship bears the name Boaty McBoatface, out of respect for the popular vote.

The ship will embark on its first Antarctic mission later this year. It has a crew of about 30 and can accommodate up to 60 scientists.​

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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